Primordial Expanse: I have the Strongest Talent!

95  The ruins

The eerie ruins loomed before Alex, a dense combination of greenery and decayed cobblestone stretching as far as his eyes permitted. The towering trees of the rainforest obscured the flickering sky, with barely any light reaching Alex on the forest floor.

It didn't take long before the ruins came into view — ancient stone structures half-hidden by thick vines and foliage.

From the outside, the ruins looked like a densely packed maze of walls, broken buildings and all sorts of remnants of a lost city. Nôv(el)B\\jnn

While the civilisation of the Primordial Expanse closely resembled that of Medieval Europe, this place simply looked ancient. The closest resemblance it had was to the Mayan ruins from Central America.

With excitement and anticipation flowing through his veins, Alex pushed forward, sinking his boots into the earth with each step as he cautiously made his way towards the entrance of the ruins.

The path ahead was far from straightforward. As Alex ventured through an opening in the ruin walls, he encountered a labyrinth of crumbling corridors and hidden passageways, each leading to a different place. He chose a path at random and navigated through the maze with caution.

From the stories Bertram had told him, he knew that this place was fraught with traps, and even strong beasts. Not a single awakened who had ventured out to explore this place had been successful in doing so, as they were simply too weak to take on such a task.

With the promise of an E+ rank sword at the heart of the ruins, there was bound to be at least a few E+ rank beasts roaming about.

Otherwise, the sword would have been taken long ago.

Snap!

Suddenly, a few tens of minutes after entering and venturing through the maze in total darkness, Alex heard the sound of something like a twig breaking echoing through the tunnels.

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Unfortunately due to the terrible acoustics of the place, he was unable to determine the exact location of the source of the sound.

Nevertheless, he kept his senses on high alert, not holding back in anything. His spatial awareness was also kept on at all times, keeping him informed of any minor movements within a 15 metre radius.

That's right, 15 metres.

He had found out a few days back.

When he first landed in this place, his range had only been 10 metres. But after absorbing soul orbs, beast cores and especially that Mutant beast core, his range had increased by 50%.

Naturally, Alex was ecstatic at this prospect and started experimenting with all of his abilities when he found out.

As it turned out, his Inferior Teleportation's range had also increased, going from 3 metres to 4.5 metres! Its energy consumption was still the same though, which sucked.

He found that fire produced with his Flame talent was also marginally stronger, to his surprise.

Alex got thinking after this, and he had come up with a theory. Absorbing beast cores doesn't provide any immediate boost to his strength, only strengthening him when he ranks up or tiers up. But absorbing soul orbs is a different story. Soul orbs let him feel an immediate boost in strength, not only physically but an all round boost to all of his senses, body, as well as his talents — excluding his Soulforge talent.

This is what convinced him that his Soulforge talent was anything far from normal. Mira had gained an S rank talent from the consumption of the Space fragment, yet although Alex hadn't gotten the chance to witness it in action yet, he had an inkling that it still wasn't nearly as powerful as his Soulforge talent.

Back to the ruins, Alex slowly walked through the tunnels of the maze with more than a little trepidation. Traps could lay await around any corner, or on any random stone. A pit could open up out of nowhere, or spikes could be launched from an opening in the wall. But Alex was no stranger to danger, and he moved with skill and precision, avoiding anywhere he suspected there might be a mechanism to trigger a trap.

Yet the true danger of this place awaited behind him, just outside of his perception. A fearsome beast watched him silently from the shadows, and he didn't even know it.

Alex was only aware that something was there due to its mistake of breaking a twig, but he had no clue where exactly it was.

Suddenly, just as Alex spotted an area ahead lit up by a torchlight, a growl that shook the very ground beneath his feet took him by surprise. A beast resembling a jet black panther lunged forward, claws bared and fangs gleaming against the contrasting darkness.

Alex gritted his teeth, readying his fists for the incoming attack of the beast.

Slash

The impact came instantly as Alex felt a gash open up on his arm where he had blocked the panther's attack in the nick of time.

While he may be strong enough to kill even Mutant beasts above his rank, he was still susceptible to sneak attacks if done right.

The panther beast was fierce and unforgiving — the beast knew its savage strength wasn't on par with Alex's, and yet it didn't falter in the slightest.

'It's probably an Ordinary E+ rank beast considering how deep its slash cut me.'

Alex assessed his injury and saw a 10 cm long, 1 or 2 cm deep gash spewing blood on his arm.

But even with the injury and pouring blood, his arm was still perfectly intact. In fact with Alex's regeneration speed, an injury like this would only need a few hours to heal, and there wouldn't even be a scar left behind.

Alex gazed off into the darkness, where the panther had retreated to after Alex had successfully blocked its attack, but was unable to see a thing.

However, it seemed as if the panther beast had no idea about Alex's sixth sense, his spatial perception as he could still mentally 'see' its position just 9 metres away, waiting for him to drop his guard again.

Alex wouldn't just wait for it to come in for the attack again though. It was time to take the initiative.

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